End Of A Very Good Day, Oil, 12x6 Original Oil by Kelley MacDonald

SOLD

This one WILL be about $200 (framed) when it goes on sale at the Art Club's Holiday Sale.  It's my first year participating, and I'm very excited!  I did this one today after class - we did more value studies - I did one good one, one awful one.  I can never do those enough, it's like I learn a lesson with each one!  This wine was a delicious French red, a Chateau Larose Trintadon, a Medoc.  Take my word for it, there SHOULD have been none left!

Sunny Flowers, Original Acrylic Painting by Kelley Carey MacDonald

9x12

NFS

This is a demo I did for my 'story board' at Michaels.  Let me tell you, there are entirely different skill sets for painting... and for collage/poster making.  I spent THREE hours today trying to make tiny stickers in the shape of letters explain briefly the painting process.  I think, in the end, it looks more like a ransom note, where all the individual letters are cut from different spots in magazines - all crooked and tilting.  People at the store were very kind.  However, about once a minute someone, seeing me in my 'Michaels' uniform, would ask me where something was.  Now... I only know where the art supplies are!  And, well, the flowers, as I was standing in the middle of them.  

Anyway, if you go to the Michaels' in Middletown and see my storyboard - do not laugh.  :)  I hope I paint better than I make posters!

Below... two of the steps in between...

The initial sketch 

And the block-in

Tulip Fields In Lisse, Original Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

NFS

This is a demo for a 'story board' for an Acrylics class I'll be teaching at Michael's Art & Craft Store.  The steps leading up to it are below.  This is what I was doing all weekend, 4 of these demos in acrylic.

Mum's The Word, Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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These mums are called Flamingo.  They're a new kind, and they are deep pinky salmon with orangy centers.  Now that I've uploaded it I can see glare in the middle of the photo - apologies.  I'll try again tomorrow, hopefully with better light.

I thought this would be a tedious painting, but it turned out to be downright joyful to paint!  I loved the way the depth just kind of evolved, loosely, with various leaves and stems.  Normally I'd overwork this part, but somehow I didn't feel the need to!

We did value studies in class today - SUCH a valuable lesson, no matter HOW long you've been painting!

Be Stress Free, 6x6 Inch Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Phew!  The Open Studio was a wonderful day, seeing old friends and meeting new!  I took yesterday *off* except for some work on Commissions.  Today this tea bag wrapper said "Be Quiet. Be Still. Be Stress Free." It was Chamomile, and smelled wonderful! Good advice for everyone, me included!

Here's some photos from the Open Studio - my favorite is the little cluster of girls working on a sketch book one of the young artists brought with her - I see a bright future as an artist for her!

   

AND one blogger friend, JoAnn Elig, came and brought her OWN donut painting for me to see!  She really blew me away with this one, beautifully framed, too!

(Jo Ann, I apologize, the lighting is horrible - you AND your painting looked much better in person!)

Spearmints III, 6x6 Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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This was the demo from my class held at my studio yesterday - can you say 'fun'?  These gals are great!  How lucky am I?  

Then it was home to bake Bake BAKE goodies for my OPEN STUDIO at the Warren Walkabout/Discover Warren on Sunday.

I'm at 32 Cole Street 2nd Floor - come see my space, I'd love to have you visit!

Crayolas, 6x6 Inch Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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My fellow DPO'er, Dana Cooper did a series of crayola crayons recently - and I loved them.  Wanted to paint them sooo bad!  (I have a bad crayon story from kindergarten!)  Well, I'll tell you they were a challenge!  Long thin poles with wrappers with designs - whew!  Well, I'm having fun making posters for my Open Studio in Warren this weekend (see upper right side of my blog) - I find the more you fool around with Microsoft Work, the easier it gets.  

And in case you haven't heard, the pug who thinks I'm poisoning him with expensive gently cooked-no by-products dog food WILLINGLY crunched open the 'level' part of a level that fell onto the floor - yeah, they're filled with ethanol, so we had to call Poison Control for him!  He's fine...

Citrus Cupcake, 6x6 Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

Susan Roden has been flinging frosting at me during this Frosting Fight!  All the way from California I took hits this weekend~!  This delicious cupcake was only ONE of a dizzying array of flavors (I can vouch for the Strawberry!) of beautiful cupcakes at the new CupCakery in Westport, MA.  The only fault I see is they somehow (?) have neglected to make coconut cupcakes.  Anyway I've been busy getting ready for my Open Studio next weekend, getting set for my Painting Class this coming Thursday in my studio - AND I've had a wonderful visit from friend and fellow blogger Amy Hillenbrand!  My husband and I took Amy and her husband Bob on a "3 hour tour" (a la Gilligan) of Rhode Island.  We me in Carol Marine's class in Santa Fe, and she invited me to stay with her when our Workshop Women (from that class) had a reunion in Austin this past January.  It is amazing that blogging brings friendships that are so dear and wonderful - what a thrill to be a part of all this!  As a younger woman - heck, 5 years ago I never could have imagined I'd be 'friends' with women I've never seen in person!  Long story - sorry.

Below, I will show you cupcake #2 - also was wiped out to make way for the more successful one, above.  It had no...ooomph.  Boring composition.  Yes, it was a recognizable cupcake - but, as they say on the South Shore of Boston - it did not survive the 'so what?' question.  So I changed the composition, and background color, and I think it's better.  You?

A Blessing, Original Acrylic Painting, 6x6, by Kelley MacDonald

On a painting trip to Maine last June, we were getting ready for dinner, and we noticed a rainbow over the house.  Not just a regular rainbow - a double rainbow.  We all ran out with our cameras, but really, it did seem to be just over our house.  A house chock full of artists, all happy, creative people who worked and played hard all week under this wonderful roof - it did indeed seem like we were blessed...

And is it just me or when men/guys do a painting trip they get all kind of notoriety, and women just do it quietly and under the radar...

Ptown Cupcake, 6x6 Original Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

I'm going mad trying to find cupcakes to paint!  This one was from a photo I took of a cupcake from the little shop called "Relish" in Provincetown.  It was a delicious concoction of tender white cake and eye-watering buttery frosting, gilded with my favorite color glittery sugar - aquamarine and lemony green!  This was not any shy little cake, either, it could have served 4 or sent ONE person into a coma!

October Beckoning, 6x6 Inch Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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I love the stem of this  - well, it's actually a gourd  - it seems to say "Come... enjoy this month!"  

Today I searched through half of Providence, RI to find some scrumptious cupcake to whip at fellow Daily Painters Originals artist Susan Roden.  No luck.  That's OK, my spirits were high because it was the kind of day I love - dramatic clouds, chilly enough for a fleece, but not uncomfortable, with blustery winds that take your hair and whip it all around.  Paco and I scoured the East Side of Providence, following leads we (ok, I) found on the internet for cupcakes - they were boring!  So we stopped at a deli in Barrington for a sandwich and saw that the local magazine that has the Discover Warren Map inside was available cool!  Until... I saw they'd forgotten to include me and my studio on the map or in the description.  I was a bit bummed (just a bit, OK?...) since I've been so excited about this for 2 months, and signed on within 3 days of it being announced.  

Trying to be balanced about it - not much I can do now, except hope that people stumble upon me that day!   Tomorrow.... a different twist on an everyday cupcake!

Carrot Cake Cupcake, 6x6 inch Original Painting by Kelley MacDonald

One of my artist friends from the West Coast, Susan Roden, who has been playing "Donut Wars" with me through the Summer, has thrown down a new gauntlet.  Literally, she has flung frosting at me!  (Fortunately I am 1) far, far away and 2) a really good hider!)  But for the next few weeks anyway, we have challenged each other to a Cupcake Fight!  A la Lucy and Ethel, I'm afraid.  But today at Walker's Roadside Stand there were these little (not) cupcakes, and I thought they were chocolate... yum.  When I ordered one, however, I was told they were Carrot Cake.  Hmmmm... well, my son Rory will eat this one.  

I cannot tell you how hard it is for me to paint these cupcakes.  Frosting is so... amorphous.   This one at least had directional lines. :)  I'll let you know if it was good.  

And this week I will be beginning to teach during the day at my studio.  If you're interested, you can email me!  I'm keeping the class small, but there's still room.

Tipping Point, 6x6 Inch Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Just when you thought the Donut Wars were over.....  You can tell I kind of had to 'hug' the top donut to create the little tongue of jelly on these - I hate overstuffed donuts, but geez!  I thought you might like to see the step by step...

A shot of the 'models'.. I took this at the very beginning.  As I painting the jelly continued to ooze...

 I chose to exaggerate the tilt of the top donut.

More of the most 'vulnerable' colors..

Then some darks and modeling...

And....the dessert... the jelly

Foreground and background... then the sugar!

I'll be Susan Roden thought she was safe.... NOT! 

Diversity, Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Our local farm stand, Walker's, in Little Compton, RI, had soooo many colored peppers - all the better for me, because I don't think I've ever met a pepper I didn't like.  These beauties look like they're ASKING to be part of fajitas, don't they?  My favorite is the misshapen purple one, because.. well, it's purple!

This will be on my display at 'Discover Warren' (used to be called the Warren Walkabout) on Oct. 17 from 11-5.  I'm going to try to get my daughter to bake some yummy things for us hehehe....